A different 'normal' in flattened villages

Tsunami survivors enjoy peace, wait for more progress.

Tsunami survivors enjoy peace, wait for more progress.

December 26, 2005|ELLEN NAKASHIMA The Washington Post

LAMTEUNGOH, Indonesia -- Flower pots have begun to brighten porches here. Fishermen are back at sea. Eighteen people in this seaside village have remarried and seven women are pregnant. Signs of routine life have returned to this village of 1,350, reduced to 257 by the Indian Ocean tsunami a year ago. Most of the survivors were men, fishing or tending crops in the hills while their wives and children died close to shore. Much has been lost in Lamteungoh and all of Aceh province, where an estimated 167,000 people were killed, the area hardest hit by the tsunami when it pummeled coastal communities in a dozen countries. But people are taking solace from the security that comes with peace. For the first time in a generation, they do not fear military checkpoints or ransom demands from rebels. A 30-year conflict between the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement ended with a peace accord on Aug. 15, partly as a result of both sides setting aside differences after the tsunami to work toward reconstruction. "This is what the Acehnese people have always dreamed of -- peace," said Marwadi Ajad, a fisherman and preacher whose new wife is two months pregnant. Not long ago, he said, soldiers would barge into his house, accusing him of supporting the rebels, demanding to see identification. "Now, there's no one checking our ID. We are free to go anywhere." On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake launched the tsunami that killed an estimated 223,500 people and left 1.8 million people homeless. Today, in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, fewer than one-fifth of the homes that need to be rebuilt are completed. In Indonesia, by far the worst hit, more than 60,000 people are still in tents during the monsoon season and several hundred thousand more are in barracks or with relatives, waiting for homes. Pledges of aid reached a record $13.6 billion, but only a fraction has been spent. In Thailand, where lucrative beach coasts were damaged, land disputes have slowed recovery. While peace has been restored in Aceh, in Sri Lanka, a similar move to make peace with separatist rebels in the tsunami's wake, now appears near collapse. A reporter returned to Lamteungoh last week, after first having visited in January, a month after the tsunami. Despite the enormous obstacles to rebuilding after the largest disaster recovery effort in history, people were trying to recapture the rhythms of life. But it is not easy. Memories intrude, the survivors said, recalling a child's hand slipping away, a wife falling to her death. The grave where Baharuddin, the village leader of Lamteungoh, buried his 11-year-old daughter a year ago is not far from his temporary wooden home. He pointed to what is now the foundation of a house being built for a villager. "We moved them and buried them over there." On a recent rainy afternoon, Baharuddin, whose wife and all five children were killed by the tsunami, reminisced how he and his son would cut the grass in their field. "On this kind of day, we would go find food for the cow and play around in the barn," he said. All around him, construction workers were hammering roofs and laying bricks. By next spring, he expects there will be 180 new houses in the village. ] But his mind was elsewhere -- in the field, in the barn, with his family. "I don't want to let go of the memory," he said. Others are hoping to make new memories. Saleha was married in April, and is expecting her first child in February. She is 18 with soft eyes, and she's resting on a bench in comfy teddy bear pajamas. Her new house will not be ready in time for the birth, but she is hopeful she and her husband, a bus conductor, will build a decent life. As the people of Aceh go about their days, the reminders of the tsunami are always present. A 150-yard long, four-story high ship that once generated electricity is now beached amid houses in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, a reminder of terrifying wall of black, oil-slicked, debris-laden water that swept people to their death. Shoulder-high swamp grass has softened what was once an angry wasteland of mud and rubble. Wreckage is slowly being cleared. The U.N. Development Program alone has removed enough waste to fill three football fields piled 10 yards high in debris. Every day, children in uniforms, the girls in white headscarves, walk to and from schools in villages around Aceh. Officials said 335 schools have been or are being built. More than 1,100 new teachers have been trained. Some people, who have a new house ready, are waiting for the school year to finish before moving their family, even if it means staying longer in barracks. In Lamteungoh, a new Islamic religious school, a madrassa, has been built. On a recent afternoon, an economic recovery workshop was being conducted in Lamteungoh's rebuilt open-air mosque. The participants included several former rebel fighters, who watched the workshop leader intently, scribbling notes on "human resources" and "capital availability" in notepads. Former rebel fighters are now helping repair the west coast highway, driving for international aid workers, and working for the government reconstruction agency.